"Disrespectful movie": Netflix's Purple Hearts' line about Arabs leaves Twitter users enraged 

Purple Hearts is a romantic drama starring Sofia Carson and Nicholas Galitzine that debuted on Netflix on July 29, 2022.

The film is about an aspiring musician and a U.S. Marine forging a marriage of convenience to receive various military compensations. However, their dynamic soon turns into an opposites-attract love story.

Since its release, the Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum directorial has attracted mixed reviews from critics and audiences. Some of its offensive lines with hints of racism, misogyny and anti-LGBTQ sentiments have left viewers enraged.

Twitter user @giulsreads, posted a video condemning the racism against Arabs in the film and admitted that being a Muslim girl herself, she found Purple Hearts to be a "disrespectful movie."

Other critics have also called out the film's promotion of military propaganda and blatant racism.

Here, we attempt a deep dive into the film to figure out what went wrong and left the internet enraged.

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What was offensive in Purple Hearts? Taking a closer look at the dialogues

As a film about a love story between a conservative U.S. marine and a liberal musician, Purple Hearts started off depicting the opposite ends of the spectrum. While the argumentative banter between Carson's Cassie and Galitzine's Luke felt fresh and representative of real-life debates on such issues, things soon took an offensive turn, with Nicholas Duvernay's Armando making a range of racist as well as misogynistic remarks.

At the beginning of the film, when viewers are introduced to Cassie, she is an aspiring musician performing at a bar where she also works as a waitress. The bar happens to be a haunt for U.S. Marines, whom Cassie despises for their contrasting views on patriotism and military supremacy.

In their very first meeting, Armando makes an offensive quip, saying:

"So we are good enough to fight for your a**, but not good enough to touch it?"

Instead of opposing his misogynistic comment, viewers see Luke making up for it by defending his comrade. "We're just blowing off some steam," he says while shaking off the comment as something Marines needed to do to "prepare themselves" for deployment.

When Cassie confronts him for making excuses about the "casual misogyny," Luke berates her for being a social media activist rather than someone who does something out in the real world, thus hinting at the undertones of military supremacy.

After Luke and Cassie's marriage of convenience, in a later scene they are shown sitting for lunch with other soon-to-be-deployed Marines. It is here that Armando makes a toast, which has been deemed as one of the most offensive lines in the film and received a lot of flak on social media:

"To life, love, and hunting down some goddamn Arabs, baby!"

The toast also attracts a scoff from Cassie, who then clarifies that Arabs are an ethnicity and points out that he was making disturbing generalizations by saying such a thing. In response, Armando mockingly says:

"What exactly would you like me to do? Go over there and teach them pronouns?"

He then brushes off Cassie's counter-argument:

"Watch your tone when you're talking to me. Luke, get your girl."

Instead of standing up to him, Luke orders Cassie to sit down, thereby snubbing her opinions and eventually shrugging off Armando's racist and misogynistic comments as "bullsh*t bravado."

He even defends Armando by saying, "Armando is a d*ck... but without guys like Armando, do you really think the country would be safe from terrorists?"

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Twitterati calls out the blatant racism and misogyny in Netflix's Purple Hearts

Purple Hearts is an opposites-attract love story wherein the male lead was a white, conservative man about to be deployed to Iraq as a Marine in service, and the female lead was a liberal, Latin American child of an immigrant who despised military men for their conservative beliefs.

However, not only did the film mellow their fiery dynamic into a clichéd enemies-turned-lovers trope, but also made them collectively promote military propaganda thereafter.

The lunch scene in Purple Hearts, with all the soon-to-be-deployed Marines and their significant others sitting at the same table, not batting an eye at casual racism and misogyny, except Cassie, has attracted the ire of many Twitteratis.

Despite the problematic lines in the first half of the film, many viewers have chosen to focus on the romance and feel-good elements of the film. This did not sit well with those calling out Purple Hearts' disrespectful and offensive scenes. Some users have even called out those who are turning a blind eye to the racism against Arabs depicted in the film.

Purple Hearts is an escapist romance that has been available to stream on Netflix since July 29, 2022. Alongside Carson and Galitzine, the film also stars Chosen Jacobs, Kat Cunning, Linden Ashby, Anthony Ippolito, John Harlan Kim, Sarah Rich, Scott Deckert, Loren Escandon, and Breana Raquel.